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Fantastic Yamaha TX500 Cafe Rider!

Tyler Hammond sends in another beautiful build! He writes in:

Hello again,
I was excited to see my Norton on your blog….actually more like
honored to be among other cool bikes……then I realized I have built
other cool bikes over the years. So i have transfered some pics from
an old computer to forward to you.

This is a 1974 Yamaha TX500 twin. It never really sold well, but its
claim to fame was it was one of the first Yamahas with DOHC. I built
this bike originally about 12 years ago (in Yellow) then revamped it
about 8 years ago, before the customization it was in stock format and
my daily driver. Its still basically a stock bike. with the exception
of the exhaust pipes I made myself (sportster mufflers) . The Tail
light is a 1959 caddy. I added another disc brake to the original
setup with little fuss…I did convert the master cylinder to handle
the Dual brakes. The Seat was also a custom Job i did myself by
cutting up the stock seat pan and some fiberglass. The bike did get
the complete frame up rebuild including powdercoating the frame. I
sold this bike about a year ago after nearly 20 years of ownership. Of
course Having a Norton Commando in the Garage makes it pretty easy to
forget about this old girl.

Yes i contemplated that for years…getting rid of the tail end. I built this bike way back before I understood the definition of cafe bike completely. But so many people loved the Tail light i just ended up leaving it alone. The bike has been out of my life now for over a year. Id like to see what the new owner ended up doing.